1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wheel chocks, wedges, and blocks. More specifically, the present invention involves the light-weight wheel chock suitable for use with large-scale trucks and other equipment of the type used in strip mines.
2. Prior Art
A wide variety of wheel chocks have long been in public use or shown in the prior art. However, the size of equipment currently used in strip mines presents a unique problem that has heretofore remained without an adequate solution. For example, hauling trucks used in strip mines commonly have wheels with diameters of ten feet or more. Conventional wheel chocks are simply not large enough to be effective when dealing with wheels of this size. However, merely increasing the scale of a conventional metal or wood wheel chock rapidly results in prohibitive weight. Rubber wheel chocks have been employed in the industry for this purpose, but even these weigh sixty to seventy pounds each.
A second concern is the corrosive environment to which wheel chocks are exposed in the mining industry. Metal, wood, or rubber deteriorate when exposed to acid mine drainage, corrosive atmospheric conditions, reagents used in processing ores, oils, greases and hydrocarbon solvents.